Starry Night part 2

It's been months since I wrote the last post (even though it was just published today) and while my plans seemed to be going pretty well, disaster struck.

Well, to be clear, disaster had already struck.  I thought the yarn I'd used on the previous project was larger than it actually was, so this lovely blue and silver stuff turned out to be *smaller,* not larger. Which means the 36 epi I'd been planning on using was going to result in much too loose a fabric.  So I re-threaded a smaller reed, winding up with 45 epi, losing several inches in width in the process.  Oh, well.

Also, I made some mistakes in threading the reed, so there were two areas where there were twice as many threads as there should have been, resulting in visible ridges in the fabric. 
Oh, well.

BUT THEN, I moved to a new apartment, and while this loom nominally folds up with the warp on it for storage and travel, being folded resulted in a large group of threads either getting cut or breaking along an edge, leaving me with dozens of threads to repair.  I'd held back some of the original warp yarn for repairs, but not *this* much.  So I'm having to fill in with a different thread, a little darker.  It'll do, I have no choice.

That wasn't the only moving-related problem, though.  Turns out, when there's no tension on the warp, there isn't much to keep the ratchets in play, so the entire warp unwound itself. when I re-wound it, the tension was really uneven along the width.  (I'd done a better job of winding than I did the first time: still learning!)

So.  I cut off all that I'd woven so far.  I took advantage of this chance to fix the reed-threading errors, and re-tied the warp to the cloth beam, and started over.

It's okay.  It was frustrating and annoying, but the resulting fabric is beautiful.  Or it will be, anyway.

Starry Night part 1

While buying replacement wool for my abortive handwoven medieval gown project, I also picked up two cones of this, in Starry Night (a deep blue) and a light variegated grey.

Each cone holds about 3800 yards.
The last thing I wove at 40 ends per inch came out nicely; this yarn is slightly thicker, and if I use my 12 dent reed and thread three ends per dent, I should end up with a nice fabric with 36 ends per inch.

I think I'd have more useful fabric if I weave at 22 or 24 inches wide, SO:

22 inches times 36 ends per inch = 792 ends.
3800 yards divided by 792 = 4.79 yards, maximum warp length, of which about 4 yards will be usable fabric.

So I will wind a 4 yard, 28 inch warp, about 800 ends.  (I think I'm going to do a color-and-weave pattern, so I can't just wind one cone until it runs out, I do actually have to count and keep track.)

I was originally thinking of a pinwheel pattern, because I like them, and because it would fit with the "starry night" theme I think I've got going on.  But I've done it before, and where's the fun in that?

An undulating twill would work well in silver and blue:

This pattern looks fun:

Ah, got it:

It's a regularized, eight-shaft version of a 16th century structure.  

And it is a solid-colored warp, so I can just wind (at slightly under 5 yards long) until I run out of thread.  Yay!